Voidwalker
The Voidwalker is the second demonic pet available to the Warlock. It becomes available at level 10 after completing a series of quests. Voidwalkers are good tankers against non-elite mobs at or near the Warlock's level; therefore, they are excellent for solo play, or when a party tank is unavailable. Among the four regular Warlock pets, the Voidwalker has the most health, but the least mana. The Voidwalker requires a Soul Shard to summon. It is the first Warlock pet to require one; the acquisition of the Voidwalker coincides with the acquisition of the ability to collect Soul Shards (with Drain Soul). Acquiring As usual, the quest line begins with an NPC Warlock near the trainers in one of each faction's major cities. When you reach level 10 as a Warlock, go to any Warlock training area for your faction (other than the level 1-6 starting areas) and there will be a quest for you, either starting you on the quest or directing you to the right person to talk to. For the Horde, Ophek in Razor Hill will send you to Gan'rul Bloodeye in Orgrimmar, and Ageron Kargal in Brill will send you to Carendin Halgar in The Undercity. Alliance Warlocks will be directed to Gakin the Darkbinder in Stormwind, either by Remen Marcot of Goldshire or Lago Blackwrench of Ironforge (to whom you may be directed by the Gnome Warlock trainers of Kharanos). In either case, the questgiver will send you to retrieve a quest item from someone nearby, who will not part with it willingly, and when you return with it, the ritual begins. A trainer will summon a Voidwalker and you must defeat it to earn the power to summon one yourself. Others can assist, of course. Voidwalker Tips The Voidwalker is a great tank pet; he takes massive amounts of damage, has great armor, holds massive amounts of enemy aggression (which is nice because it's not on you!) and heals himself quickly after every fight. If you intend to fight multiple enemies simultaneously, the Voidwalker is your best choice. If you spend a few talent points in Improved Voidwalker, he can keep the attention of even the highest level enemies. His Sacrifice is great when being ambushed by another player or mob, giving you a shield that can absorb thousands of points of damage at a moment's notice. Sadly, the Voidwalker does the least melee damage of any of the regular 4 Warlock pets. Don't rely on it to kill the target with melee damage. Instead, put your DoTs on the mob, and maybe use some direct-damage spells as well, such as Immolate or Shadow Bolt, but be sparing so you don't draw the aggro to yourself. The whole point of a Voidwalker is to absorb the mob's attention and damage so you're free to let your spells work, watch for adds, use Life Tap, bandage yourself, etc. See the strategy section of Curse of Agony for tips on how to effectively combine usage of DOTs with the Voidwalker. Besides increasing its threat generation powers, the Improved Voidwalker talent also amplifies the self-healing effect of Consume Shadows and the damage absorption of Sacrifice. If you're going to be facing just one mob at a time, turn off the auto-cast on Suffering. There's no sense wasting mana doing an area-of-effect taunt when you're using a single-target one too. An exception to this would be at high levels when Torment just isn't keeping the aggro off you, but even then, Suffering doesn't help much if that's the case. Torment and Suffering have absolutely no use in PvP combat. If you know in advance that you're going to be engaging in PvP and are still determined to have the Voidwalker around for some reason, turn off auto-cast on these abilities so you'll at least have plenty of mana for Consume Shadows. Because of its high health and Consume Shadows ability, the Voidwalker is likely to have a lot of health at any given time, making it the best pet to have around if you're going to use Soul Link, especially if you also have Fel Stamina. However, because of its low mana and high mana usage, this is a terrible pet to have around if you're going to use Dark Pact. The Voidwalker's benefits under the Demonic Sacrifice and Master Demonologist talents (rapid health regeneration and damage reduction, respectively) can add to a Warlock's survival chances in many situations. Voidwalker Abilities Torment Torment is an ability which taunts the target so that it will attack the Voidwalker instead of the Warlock or his/her companions. This is Shadow-based, so Curse of Shadow will help your Voidwalker land Torment more often. It can be resisted, by the way, and does not guarantee that your Voidwalker will get aggro in a snap. It has a 5-second cooldown. When set on auto-cast, the game's AI merely uses this on the Voidwalker's current target whenever possible. Because of Torment's cooldown, that means once every 5 seconds, which tends to eat up the Voidwalker's relatively small mana supply fairly quickly. It also recovers quickly when combat is over, but be advised. Sacrifice Sacrifice is an ability which kills the Voidwalker and gives the Warlock an absorb shield that is similar to a priest's Power Word: Shield ability. Unfortunately, you are still vulnerable to spell interruption with the Voidwalker's shield, and it can be dispelled. However, it's very useful when using Hellfire, making a getaway or to extend your life in PvP combat. The duration of the Sacrifice shield is 30 seconds. Other than shields that don't let you do anything (e.g. the Paladin's Divine Shield and Divine Intervention), this is the strongest absorption-type shield in the game. It is possible to summon another demon while under this shield, unless you're faced by an enemy that can interrupt casting or quickly overwhelm the shield with sheer damage. The Fel Domination and Master Summoner talents can make this a much more likely tactic -- if you have Soul Link, you probably have these, and in an emergency you can Sacrifice your Voidwalker, resummon it (it will now be at full health), and Soul Link with it again. Consume Shadows Consume Shadows is a channeled self-heal that can't be used during combat. Considering how quickly pets regenerate health anyway, it's not often useful, although being Soul Linked to a Passive Voidwalker that is Consuming Shadows is one amazing scenario. Suffering Suffering is an Area of Effect taunt that allows the Voidwalker to attract the attention of multiple monsters. It is very useful if you happen to get an add or 2 and want the Voidwalker to hold them off while you run, bandage yourself or try your best to tackle them. It is on a 2-minute cooldown and, as with Torment, is a Shadow effect that can be resisted. This ability can be placed on auto-cast; like Torment, it will then be used whenever possible while in combat (i.e., once every 2 minutes, because of the cooldown). Voidwalker Stats Here is all the Voidwalker Stats through its levels. I took them using a Human Warlock player. Hope someone can complete the list. Voidwalker Trivia * Affectionately known as the "Blueberry" or "Big Blue". * Appears to have a mission in life of hovering right on top of the Warlock, especially when the Warlock is trying to open a chest, pick an herb, mine an ore vein, or loot a corpse. Also very good at filling up the entire screen with blue when the camera is zoomed in close. * The VW is sure to be annoying to any other party members in a dungeon where there is a more capable tank. This is true especially when littler mobs are being fought, such as perhaps against goblins in the Deadmines, and when little characters such as dwarves and gnomes are in the party. * Voices have been added to the Voidwalker and Succubus when you summon them. * Voidwalkers have an auto-idle action of raising his arms up to the sky and stretching. ---- Category:Game Terms Category:Warlocks Category:Warlock Pets Category:Demons Category:Creatures